Shopping bag with turned in edge



March 6, 1962 SHOPPING Filed July 1 1959 H- K. STEEN 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. L 30 I8 L? g INVENTOR 57 HARFORD K. STEEN W1 6 M 5 ATT RNEYS.

March 6, 1962 H. K. STEEN SHOPPING BAG WITH TURNED IN EDGE 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed July 1, 1959 INVENTOR HARFORD K. STEEN United States Patent 3,023,946 SHOPPING BAG WITH TURNED DJ EDGE Harford K. Steen, Newburgh, N .Y., assignor to Interstate Bag Company, Inc., Walden, N.Y., a corporation of Virginia Filed July I, 195% Ser. No. 824,324 6 Claims. (Cl. 229-54) This invention relates to handled shopping bags and to a novel method employed in the making of such bags. The novel bag is broadly of the type disclosed in US. Patent 2,060,451, and is adapted to be made by a generally similar procedure by mechanism of the kind disclosed in Patent 2,060,450. Individual instrumentalities shown in the patents or their equivalents are used in the present method, and the machines in their entireties could be used with minor adaptations, but the method is illustratively disclosed herein in connection with present day equipment of Interstate Bag Company in which the bag material proceeds bottom end first.

According to the patents referred to, shopping bags are made from a web of suitable paper, the bags being of conventional construction save for the fact that cord or twine handles are attached by adhesion to the inner faces of opposite sides of each bag in positions to extend outward beyond the mouth of the bag and in nested relation to one another. The adhered ends of the handles are covered by, and are also adhered to, bag reinforcing tabs or tapes.

The problem of making bags of this kind economically through the use of hi h speed machinery was solved according to the above patents by first forming, at blank length intervals, aligned transverse slits in the handle zones of the web to effect partial severance, then applying the handles to the web across the slits, and then, after tubing, completing the severance without cutting through the handles, by effecting supplemental partial cuts in alignment with each aligned pair of slits.

Each bag of the patents referred to came out of the machine with substantially straight top edges formed by the slits and the supplementary cuts. If desired, an infolded flap could be provided for in the patented bag by forming score lines which extended from the top edge adjacent the ends of the preliminary slits at a slight angle of divergence to the top edge for gradually increasing the width of the flap from Zero to a maximum width of the order of one inch.

A flap of this kind is not altogether satisfactory, partly because it gradually tapers away to nothing adjacent the handles, and partly because it provides sloping folded edges at the top of the bag when the flap is turned in. The useful height of a bag of uneven height is essentially the least height of the bag, particularly when the least height occurs at the points farthest from the handle, as in the patented bag. The folding of the flap, therefore, reduces the useful height of the bag by an amount equal to the width of the inturned flap at the widest point of the flap. Although an infolded flap is a very desirable feature from the standpoint of providing a tear resistant, folded edge at the mouth of the bag where the liability of starting tears is greatest, a large proportion of the bags made according to the above cited patents have been made without the flap feature, because the flap as there provided has not, in the opinion of many users, been worth so great a sacrifice of effective bag height.

In the manufacture of the previously patented bag, two longitudinal slits are provided in conjunction with each transverse slit for the purpose of providing tongues or tabs which protrude beyond the straight edge forming the lower boundary of the bag blank, i.e., that destined to constitute the bottom of the bag. Protruding tongues or tabs are commonly provided in bag making, being important from the standpoint of securing adequate overlap 3,023,946 Patented Mar. 6, 1962 for good adhesion of the bottom flaps of the bag. The tongues or tabs are made to protrude because extra material is required only where they are located. The material at either side of the tongues has ordinarily been removed and wasted because its retention interferes with desired folding and adhesion and makes the bottom of the bag objectionably bulky] The mere provision of tongues which protrude beyond the general lower boundary of a blank, therefore, has involved the using up or discarding of about five percent of the bag material.

The primary object of this invention is to provide a bag of uniform height having an infolded flap of uniform width, with the flap derived from material which is commonly wasted alongside the bottom tongues between successive blanks. In other words, the object is to utilize the usually wasted material for providing an improved infolded top flap. The advantages of this arrangement are:

(1) That the infolded flap of uniform width is a much more satisfactory form of flap than the tapering flap of the patented construction, and

(2) That a bag having an infolded flap of uniform, substantial width is provided at the same cost in material as a raw-edged patented bag of exactly the same uniform height. This represents a saving of material in the bag having an infolded flap of the order of five percent, through the utilization of material previously wasted.

In the procedure of the patents, the supplementary cuts were intended to be made in exact alignment with the preliminary transverse slits and in slightly overlapping relation to them. If the alignment failed slightly, the ends of the supplementary cuts and the preliminary slits would extend closely adjacent to one another and in parallel relation, so that the bag material could be readily broken through without danger of starting general tears.

In accordance with the present procedure the straight portions of the supplemental cuts are displaced from the preliminary slits by a distance equal to the width of the top flap, and curved cut segments are provided at the inner ends of the supplementary straight cuts, which meet the straight cuts at right angles but turn into alignment with, and overlap the ends of the preliminary slits. This ar rangement preserves the advantage, when exact alignment of the preliminary slits and the curved cut segments tails, of having closely adjacent overlapping cuts which extend in the same direction, and this without the formation of a reentrant angle as a point of major weakness. The bottom tongues are the same as they were in the patented bag, except for the fact that they are rounded at the corners, being complementary to the notches provided at the top of the bag in the handle zones.

The procedure whereby the improved bag is produced is generally the same in principle as before, except for the fact that it involves the relocation and modification of the shape of the supplementary cuts.

Other objects and advantages will hereinafter appear;

In the drawing forming part of this specification, FIGURE 1 is a view in elevation, partly broken away,

of a nearly completed, illustrative bag embodying features of the invention, one foldable upper end flap of the" bag being shown up-standing but partly broken away and the other turned downward, and the bottom being in a partially folded, unclosed condition;

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of the inner side of a complete, unfolded blank of FIGURE 1 with the handles and a reinforcing strip attached;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary diagrammatic view showing the web at successive stages of advance and with the supplementary cuts indicated in broken lines as they will be applied in the last stage; and

FIGURE 4 is a view in side elevation showing diagrammatically the progress of the bag making operations through the pre-slitting, pasting and reinforcing of the web and the applying of the handles.

The bag of the present invention, as has been noted, is generally like the bag of US. Patent 2,060,451. The known structure will, therefore, be described very briefly, the chief emphasis being reserved for the features of novelty. The same thing is true of the method.

If the nearly completed bag of FIGURE 1 were opened along its side seam and fully unfolded, the inner face would be presented to view as shown in FIGURE 2. The blank would comprise body panels 12 and 14, a first pair of gusset panels 16 and 18 and a second pair of gusset panels 20 and 22, all running from the upper edge of the blank down to a transverse fold line 24. The upper margins of the body panels 12 and 14 are formed with recesses 26 and 28, respectively. Twine handles 30 and 32 have their end portions adhesively secured between the body panels 12 and 14, respectively, and a reinforcing band 34 which extends almost completely around the inside of the bag at a short distance below the bag mouth. The recesses 26 and 28 extend laterally beyond the associated handles 30 and 32 so that flaps 35 and 36 at the upper boundary of the body can be folded down inside the mouth of the bag without interference by the handles. A score line 39, parallel to the upper edge 37 of the blank divides the flaps 35 and 36 from the main body.

The portions of the blank lying below the fold line 24 constitute the bottom forming material. Longitudinal fold lines 38, 40, 42, 44, 46 and 48 extend through the bottom and the body material from end to end of the blank. A further transverse fold line 50 extends across the blank in the bottom area thereof. Short slits 52 are formed to extend upward from the bottom edge of the blank. Tongues or tabs 54 and 56 extend downward beyond the normal lower boundary edges 57 of the blank and are complementary, respectively, to the recesses 26 and 28. The bottom is also provided with diagonal fold lines 58, 59, 60 and 61. The bot-tom is in all respects conventional, save that the tabs or tongues '54 and 56 are rounded rather than angular. It is not essential that they be rounded, but if they were made with square corners, the vertices of the resulting reentrant angles in the complementary recesses at the top of the blank would constitute points of unusual vulnerability to tearing. The usual angular tabs involve a wasting of paper equivalent substantially to the amount of paper in the folded down flaps 35 and 36. By making the tabs 35 and 36 complementary to the recesses 26 and 28, the flaps 35 and 36 are provided at no extra expense of paper. This constitutes the salient feature of novelty of the invention.

In the normal manufacture of bags having handles like 30 and 32, the handles are attached to the bag body in part by direct adhesion and in part through individual patches or through a common reinforcing band like 34. It is usual first to slit the web along straight transverse lines in the handle zones corresponding to the straight base portions of the recesses 26 and 28. These slits extend completely across the handle zones and short distances beyond them so that each bag length can be separated from the web after the handles have been applied by a supplementary partial severance confined to zones which are clear of the handles. The second or supplementary patch severance lines are caused to align with the slits as nearly as possible. The severance lines are caused to overlap slightly. If they are not quite in alignment they are at least parallel and in close proximity to one another so that the paper between the lines can be broken through readily without starting general tears.

In the present instance, however, the first partial severance is effected about an inch below the upper boundary 37 of the unfolded flaps 35 and 36, which boundary will be formed by the straight segments of the supplementary partial severance lines. The second severance means is therefore arranged, not only to make the long straight cuts, but also to make connected cuts corresponding to the curved portions of the notches 26 and 28. By making these auxiliary cuts curved, the inner ends of the curved cuts can be made to coincide with the slits, or at least to extend substantially in the same direction as the slits and in close proximity to them so that the paper can be broken through without starting general tears.

The procedure involved in the manufacture of the bag of FIGURE 1 is clearly disclosed in FIGURES 3 and 4. The illustrative form of mechanism employed is generally like that of US. Patent 2,060,450, although there are specific differences. Details of the various operating instrumentalities are adequately shown and described in said patent, and since the present invention has to do with the method and the product, rather than the apparatus, the apparatus is illustrated herein in a realistic but purely diagrammatic manner. Reference may be had to Patent 2,060,450 for a detailed illustration of instrumentalities suitable with minor and obvious adaptations for carrying out the procedure described and claimed herein.

A roll 60 of bag paper is mounted in the usual way on a rod 62 which is rotatably supported in bearings 64. The paper web 60 is fed at constant speed around a guide roller 66 and thence past a paste applying roller 68. The roller 68 is supplied with paste from a pan 69 by a pickup roller 70. A doctor roller '71 limits the paste film on the roller 70. An impression roller 72 is opposed to the roller 68. The roller 68 applies transverse paste stripes 74 at bag blank intervals to the inner face of the web 60. The paste stripes 74 are used for securing reinforcing bands 34 to the inner face of the web 60.

After passing the roller 68, the web 6% travels past a roller pair 86, 88 located at a slitting station. The roller 86 carries a male cutting member which acts in cooperation with a cooperative female cutting member of the opposed roller 88. The cutting members form two aligned transverse slits 92 which extend across and beyond the longitudinal web zones in which the handles 30 and 32 will be subsequently applied. The roller 83 also carries scoring blades for forming the score line 39.

The web 66 travels next between a bed roller 96 and an opposed spot printing segment 98 whereby spots 100, 102, 104 and 106 of self adhesion adhesive are applied in locations and for a purpose which will be more fully explained at a subsequent point.

The paper for forming the patch strips 34 is supplied in the form of a web 113 from a reel 112 over the upper roller 114 of a draw roller pair 114, 116. The web passes between the rollers 114 and 116, and then between the roller 116 and a paste applying roller 118. The roller 118 applies narrow strips of paste in the four narrow zones which are destined to come into contact with the attached ends of the handles 30 and 32, so that there will be adhesion of the handle ends to the band 34 as well as to the body material 60. The paste is supplied from a pan 120 to roller 118 by a pick-up roller 122.

After leaving the rollers 116, 118 the web 113 passes between perforating rollers 124, 126 which form an easy tear line completely across it, and thereafter enters the nip of rollers 108, 110. The rollers 108, 110 travel at a much higher peripheral speed than the feed rate of the web 113 (the ratio being the same as the height of the bag blank to the width of the band 34 as seen in FIG. 2, when the illustrative bag is being made). As soon as the web 113 enters the nip of rollers 108, 110 the partially severed band at the leading end of the web is snapped off.

The reinforcing band and the handles are pressed against the web 60 by the rollers 103 and 110.

Simultaneously with the application of the patch 34 to the Web 60 by rollers 108, 110, the handles are applied between the web 60 and the patch.

The handle twine 128 is fed from reels 130 (one shown) through draw rolls 132, 134 and 136 and thence between cut-off rolls 138 and 149, and pinch segment rolls 142, 144 to a handle forming cylinder 146. The cylinder 146 is equipped with handle formers which form the handles and deliver them with their cut ends leading between the webs 60 and 113 on the rollers 108, 110. The band 34 extends almost completely across the web 60, but does not run into the longitudinal seam area.

The patch and handle equipped web 60 continues forward past a paste nozzle 148 which applies a continous strip 74 of paste for forming the longitudinal seam, and passes thence to a tuber 15%.

After the gusseted tube has been formed, longitudinal slits 152 are made in the bottom area, and straight transverse cuts 154 and connected curved cuts 156 are made in the superposed layers of the bag material. The straight transverse cuts 154 extend through the gusset zones and inward beyond them while curved cuts 156 are located at the inner extremities of the straight cuts 154. The relation of these cuts to the slits 92 and to the handles 39 and 32 is indicated in broken lines at the handle applying and reinforcing station of FIGURE 3, to show the relationship of the cuts to one another, even though the supplementary cuts will in fact be made only after tubing.

The spots and 1112 of self-adhesion adhesive are applied to the flaps 35 and 36, and spots 1% and 106 of self-adhesion adhesive are applied to the body material below the score line 147.

The spots 100 and 194 are so placed that the respective spots 16% will be folded upon, and adhered to, the respective spots 104 when the flaps 35 and 36 are folded down. The spots 102 and 106 bear a similar relation to one another. If deep gussets are provided there is no danger of spots on one bag wall contacting and sticking to spots on the opposite wall, because the gussets intervene. Otherwise care must be taken to avoid contact of the spots 100 with the spots 102 and contact of the spots 104 with the spots 106 before folding down of the flaps. This is done by locating the spots 100 and 104 in one pair of longitudinal zones and the spots 1412 and 166 in a non-registering pair of longitudinal zones. With this arrangement the flaps can be folded down at the factory if desired, or the bags may be delivered into commerce with the flaps upstanding.

While a gusseted bag has been illustratively shown and described herin, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to gusseted bags but is useful in any type of bag which employs projecting tongues on its bottom flaps.

It will also be apparent that the division of lines between the preliminary slitting and the supplementary cuts can be reapportioned so long as the preliminary slits extend across and beyond the handle zones while still leaving the web sufficiently intact to admit of the successful performance of the operations which follow slitting. The preliminary slits may, for example, include parts or all of the arcuate cuts 151), and even parts of the straight lines of severance 14-8 beyond the arcuate segments.

While certain preferred embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described in detail, it is understood that changes may be made therein and the invention practiced in other forms. It is not therefore, the intention to limit the patent to the specific details illustratively described, but to cover the invention broadly in whatever form its principle may be utilized.

1 claim:

1. A handled shopping bag comprising a tubular body having two opposed side wall sections, a top edge, and a folded bottom structure, said top edge being substantially straight except for two oppositely located recesses formed in the upper margins of said two side wall sections, a score line formed about the upper margin of said body substantially parallel to and spaced from the top edge thereof a distance less than the depth of said recesses and interrupted by said recesses, to permit the info-lding of the upper margin of said tubular body in two sections between said recesses, and a pair of flexible looped handles having end-s united to the inner faces of said side walls below said score line and within the lateral extent of said recesses with the handles extending up into the areas of said recesses, enabling said handles to be grasped for carrying the bag with said upper margin extended or infolded.

2. A handled bag as set forth in claim 1, and further having self-adhesion adhesive on a plurality of localized areas on both of said side wall sections and said upper margin, said areas on said margin registering with corresponding areas on said side wall sections when said upper margin is infolded, and said areas on one side Wall sec tion being offset from said areas on the opposed side wall section to prevent adhesion between the two sides of the bag.

3. A handled shopping bag comprising a one-piece tubular body having two opposed side wall sections, a top edge, and a folded bottom structure, said top edge being substantially straight except for two oppositely located recesses formed in the upper margins of said two side wall sections, a score line formed about the upper margin of said body substantially parallel to the'straight portions of the upper edge and spaced therefrom by a distance substantially equal to the depth of said recesses and interrupted by said recesses, to permit the infolding of the upper margin of said tubular body in two sections between said recesses, a pair of flexible looped handles having ends united to the inner faces of said side walls immediately below said recesses and within the lateral extent of the respective recesses, with the handles extending up into the areas of said recesses and beyond the same, enabling the handles to be grasped for carrying the bag with said upper margin either extended or infolded, the lower end of the body being complementary to the upper end thereof and being infolded and adhered to form a rectangular bottom, the bottom edge of the body, though generally straight, being interrupted in its straightness by the inclusion of integral, protruding, adhesion tongues along opposite infolded and adhesively united sides of the bottom, which tongues substantially increase the area of overlap, and of adhesion, of said infolded sides of the bottom, and thereby serve to provide important reinforcement for the bottom, the tongues being complementary to the recesses in the upper end of the body, and being therefore provided at no extra expense of paper.

4. The method of making from a continuous web without waste of material, handled shopping bags having foldin flaps of substantially uniform depth at the mouth thereof, which method includes, first the formation of preliminary slits which at least include straight transverse cuts that extend completely across the handle zones, forming score lines between the slits and substantially in line with the slits to mark the lower boundaries of the flaps and to facilitate the folding down of the flaps, then the attachment of the handles to extend across the respective slits, then the tubing of the blank which has been partially severed by the slits while the blank continues to function as an integral part of the web, then the completion of the severance of the blank through the effecting of supplementary, generally straight outs, which are so displaced relative to the preliminary slits that recesses are formed in the upper margin of the bag body and complementary protruding tongues are formed at the lower extremity of the bag body, and finally bottoming the bag.

5. The method of making handled shopping bags which comprises feeding a web of bag making paper lengthwise, at a slitting station forming pairs of aligned, spaced, transverse slits at intervals corresponding to a bag blank length, each slit in position to extend completely across and laterally beyond a longitudinal zone in which a handie is to be applied, adhesively uniting handles and reinforcing material to the web so that the adhered handle ends extend into the area of the bag mouth below the slits and free handle portions extend across and well beyond the slits, scoring the material of each blank length substantially in line with the preliminary slits to define a lower boundary for a fold-in flap, continuously tubing the bag web after the above recited steps have been performed, and completing the severance of each tubed blank length, preliminary to bottoming, by making supplementary transverse straight cuts which extend parallel to the preliminary slits but at a substantial distance therefrom, and auxiliary cuts which connect the supplementary straight cuts with the preliminary slits whereby the preliminary slits, the supplementary outs and'the auxiliary cuts combine to divide successive complementary blanks from the web, each having strai ht leading and trailing edges with a pair of protruding bottoming tongues formed in the longitudinal zones of the handles at the bottom end of each blank and a pair of notches complementary to the bottoming tongues formed in the longitudinal zones of the handles at the upper end of each blank and interrupting the fold-in flap area.

6. The method of making handled shopping bags as set forth in claim 5 in which the auxiliary cuts are arcuate in form, each extending downward and inward from the associated supplementary cut and into substantial registration with the 'adajcent end of the associated transverse slit.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,060,451 Steen Nov. 10, 1936 2,062,617 Steen Dec. 1, 1936 2,091,796 Potdevin et a1 Aug. 31, 1937 2,447,964 Slindee Aug. 24, 1948 2,511,031 Yount Jan. 13, 1950 2,633,287 Jacobson Mar. 31, 1953 2,690,706 Luhrrnann et al. Oct. 5, 1954 

